Web-based Tools

Below is the list of web based applications about which we are currently aware.  No endorsement or promotion is implied.  A more comprehensive list maintained by farms.com may be found at http://www.farms.com/agriculture-apps/.


Crop Management

  • Cover Crop Chart - from the USDA, a Cover Crop Chart (v. 2.0) designed to assist producers with decisions on the use of cover crops in crop and forage production systems. The chart, patterned after the periodic table of elements, includes information on 58 crop species that may be planted individually or in cocktail mixtures. Information on growth cycle, relative water use, plant architecture, seeding depth, forage quality, pollination characteristics, and nutrient cycling are included for most crop species.
  • Cover Crop Decision Tool - from the NE Cover Crop Council, Check out the Cover Crop Explorer for an in-depth review of cover crops in your USDA hardiness zone or use the Species Selector Tool to narrow down which cover crops might work for you.
  • Grain Visual Reference Library - from the USDA, Visual Reference Images (VRI) are used to ensure consistent and uniform application of grading lines and illustrate types of damage in conjunction with written descriptions. The visual grading aids system represents the foundation for the national inspection system's subjective quality control program, providing an effective management tool for aligning inspectors and assisting them in making proper and consistent subjective grading decisions. The system consists of a series of commodity specific VRI and descriptive text which help reduce the impact of normal perceptional differences between inspectors.
  • Pioneer Hi-Bred Corn Yield Estimator - Use this tool to estimate preharvest corn yields.
  • PubAg - a portal to USDA-authored and other highly relevant agricultural research. At launch it delivers over 40,000 full-text journal articles by USDA staff and citations to an additional 340,000 articles.

Forages

GIS

  • Get Lat Lon - A very simple to use web site to find out your current latitude and longitude. Users can get lat and long for their current location based on IP address of their computer or they can manually enter a location to get its lat and long.
  • Google Earth Pro - Read Putting Google Earth to Use on the Farm for ways to use Google Earth in your decision-making process with your on-farm data.  Then download Google Earth Pro for free, enter in your Gmail ID for the Username, and use the free license key, "GEPFREE" in the License Key field.

Nutrient Management

  • Adapt-N - Adapt-N is an online tool that will help you precisely manage your N inputs for grain, silage or sweet corn. It uses a well-calibrated computer model, high resolution weather information available for your fields, and soil, crop and management information you provide. All user inputs are kept confidential.
  • Cropware™ - Farm Information Technologies is proud to be the new developer and distributor of Cropware™ (formerly developed by Cornell University). Cropware is a nutrient management planning tool. In addition, we have teamed with strategic partners to provide a suite of software tools, including FieldRecon® for field recordkeeping, and FieldRx® for variable rate application/seeding maps.
  • New York State P-Index Calculator - Developed by the NY P index Working Group.
  • Soil Test Conversion Tools
  • Other Nutrient Management Calculators (Excel) - Fall Nitrogen and Carbon Pools for Winter Cereals (NEW) * Lime Calculator * Corn Nitrogen Calculator * ISNT and LOI Interpretations for Corn * CSNT Interpretations for Corn * Corn Nitrogen Management Evaluation Tool * Crop Available Nutrients from Manure * Value of Manure Calculator  * Expected Nitrogen Credits From Plowed Sods * Whole Farm Nutrient Mass Balance Tool

Pest and Disease Management

Pesticides

  • MAPL - Mobile Access to Pesticides and Labels.  This tool is intended to help you find pesticide product-related information while using your mobile device.

Soils

  • SoilWeb: An Online Soil Survey Browser - An online soil survey that can be used to access USDA-NCSS 1:24,000 scale detailed soil survey data (SSURGO) in many parts of the lower 48 states. Where this data is not yet available, 1:250,000 scale generalized soils data (STATSGO) can be accessed instead (AZ, CA, NV only). An interactive map interface allows for panning and zooming, with highways, streets, and aerial photos to assist navigation.
  • USDA NRCS Web Soil Survey - Web Soil Survey (WSS) provides soil data and information produced by the National Cooperative Soil Survey. It is operated by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and provides access to the largest natural resource information system in the world. NRCS has soil maps and data available online for more than 95 percent of the nation’s counties and anticipates having 100 percent in the near future. The site is updated and maintained online as the single authoritative source of soil survey information.  Soil surveys can be used for general farm, local, and wider area planning. Onsite investigation is needed in some cases, such as soil quality assessments and certain conservation and engineering applications. For more detailed information, contact your local USDA Service Center or your NRCS State Soil Scientist.

Weather

  • Ag Weather Forecast - From Ag Web and Farm Journal, farm weather / climate coverage, real-time conditions, precip/temp/soil maps and more
  • Climate Smart Farming - From Cornell University, cutting-edge tools to help farmers manage climate risk.
  • CLIMOD 2 - Northeast RCC single and multi-station climate summaries
  • GDU Calculator - From Pioneer Hi-Bred, get field-by-field crop progress and 14-day forecast. Learn more about their high resolution weather data to track and forecast Growing Degree Unit accumulation field-by-field.
  • NEWA Degree Day Calculator - Get the accumulated degree days for a time period of your choosing. Also select from 11 base temperatures (4C, 32F, 40F, 43F, 45F, 48F, 50F, 86F/50F, 55F, 47.14F, 14.3C) plus two calculated using the Baskerville Emen formula (43F and 50F).
  • NYS IPM Network for Environment and Weather Applications - NEWA - NEWA connects you with data from electronic weather stations in the Northeast through the Internet. Farmers, consultants, food processors, NYS IPM, airports, and Cornell research farms provide the weather stations. The NEWA website provides weather data from > 100 locations including growing degree days.

Weed Management

  • Herbicide Injury - Time-lapse Mode of Action - From Ohio State University Weed Science, a series of time-lapse videos depicting a variety of weeds and their reactions to differing modes of action.
  • Take Action: Herbicide-Resistant Weeds - Take Action is an industry-wide partnership between university weed scientists, major herbicide providers and corn, cotton, sorghum, soy and wheat organizations to help you manage herbicide-resistant weeds. Use this site to learn how you can diversify your weed control techniques to fight herbicide resistance.